Vent closure assembly



4 I A I W y 1969 J. LAURIZIO 3,458,084

VENT CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Filed May (5, 1968 H 1 I 2 z d I (((i'fi mvsmonJEREM/A H A AU/P/Z/O /3 22 /4 /0 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,458,084VENT CLOSURE ASSEMBLY Jeremiah Laurizio, New Providence, N.J., assignorto American Flange & Mfg. Co., Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation ofDelaware Filed May 6, 1968, Ser. No. 726,810 Int. Cl. B65d 25/14, 25/34US. Cl. 220-63 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This inventionrelates to closures for lined containers and is particularly concernedwith a two-piece vent closure construction for use on drum heads withplastic liners.

In the industrial container field there is prevalent use of drums madefrom either metal or fiber with metal ends and provided with an interiorliner formed of synthetic plastic to protect against the drum contentscoming in direct contact with the interior surfaces of the drum shell.Such liners usually include a separate disc which underlies the interiorsurface of the drum head. The liner disc is provided with a dispensingopening which mates with a similar opening in the drum head forreception of a dispensing closure member sealing the liner to the drumhead about the opening. It has become equally desirable to have therespective container and closure parts cooperate in a similar manner inproviding a container vent to aid dispensing. The limitations imposed byworking in a much smaller circumference opening as well as the costfactor involved has necessitated the development of the inventionconstruction.

Previous attempts at providing a satisfactory vent closure for lineddrums have been largely deficient in one respect or another due to anumber of problems which become magnified in a small diameter, low costclosure fitting of this type. Perhaps the most serious of these problemsis the fact that there are presently in common use a number of linersconforming to different manufacturing and/or government specificationscalling for different wall thicknesses. Moreover there is a widepermissible range of wall thickness variation in liners conforming to asingle specification, in fact, the wall thickness in any one linervaries over a considerable range. The problem of providing a leakproofvent closure for all these combinations might be solved by supplying adifferent size vent fitting for each situation. This would, of course,be quite costly and present a troublesome inventory problem. Anotheralternative might be to form difierent size openings in the drum headsand head liners for reception of a standard closure fitting. Theconsequent investment in metal forming die parts and plastic mold partsplus the attendant changeover time involved renders this arrangementeven less appealing.

The solution presented by the instant invention contemplates the use ofa single standard closure fitting for use with a single size opening andwhich will perform satisfactorily with liner members of widely varyingwall thicknesses. At the same time the closure fitting herein disclosedis inexpensive to manufacture and is easily and quickly applied to drumheads.

It is accordingly a primary object to this invention to provide new andimproved closures for lined containers.

Another object is to provide a new two-piece plastic vent closureassembly for drums provided with interior liner members.

A further object is to provide a closure assembly for containers havinginterior liner members of varying thicknesses.

Other and more detailed objects will in part be obvious and in partpointed out as the description of the invention taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawing proceeds.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is an exploded sectional view of the container closure assemblyformed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the closure assembly of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view taken on lines 3-3 of FIG. 1 and looking inthe direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the closure assembly illustratingthe manner in which the parts are assembled;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing the assembled closure withcap removed; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view similar to FIG. 5 butincorporating a thicker liner member.

The various parts making up the container closure assembly of theinvention are shown in FIG. 1 wherein the container wall or drum head isindicated by numeral 1 and is provided with an opening surrounded by anupstanding neck 2 terminating in a free edge 3. The head liner 4 isformed of synthetic plastic material and is Similarly provided with anopening surrounded by an upstanding neck 5 terminating in a free edge 6.

The two-piece vent closure assembly includes a grommet generallyindicated at 10 and a vent insert 20 both of which are formed ofsynthetic plastic material. The grommet 10 has a cylindrical body 11defining an internal bore 12. A circumferential flange 13 surrounds thebase of the body 12. An annular undercut section 14 is formed radiallyinwardly of the flange 13 at the base of the bore 12. The body 11 has anupper end surface 15 within which an axially directed annular groove 16is formed. The groove 16 extends down within the body 11 to a point inrelatively close proximity to the flange 13 so that an outer wall 17 andan inner wall 18 are formed on either side of the groove.

The vent insert 20 has a lower hollow stem portion 21 surrounded by acircumferential locking shoulder 22 adjacent the lower end of the stemportion. A short pilot portion 23 is formed at the lowermost end of thestem portion 21. A radially outwardly extending collar 24 having a flatunder surface 25 surrounds the upper end of the stem portion 21. Aclosure cap receiving lip 26 extends above the collar 24 for receptionof an overlying snap cap 27 attached to the collar 24 by means of aflexible connecting strap 28. The upper end portion of the vent inserthas a reduced cross section bore sealed off by an integrally formedpuncturable sealing diaphragm 29.

Turning to FIG. 4 it can be seen that the assembly operation isperformed by first inserting the grommet body portion 11 up through themated openings in the drum head 1 and liner member 4. The liner neck 5is thus pushed upwardly and tightly held against the container wallopening neck 2 by the outer wall 17 of the grommet body 11. With grommetbody 11. With grommet flange 13 then rigidly supported on its lowersurface the vent insert is first guided into the grommet bore 12 by thepilot portion 23 and then pressed into the grommet until the lockingshoulder 22 snaps under the undercut section 14. In order to effect apositive locking engagement between the grommet and vent insert, aslight amount of spring back is provided by the narrow space indicatedat 30 between the under surface 25 of the collar 24 and the upper end 15of grommet body 11 as seen in FIG. 5. This assures the shoulder 22becoming fully seated on the undercut section 14. Also the undercutsection allows the vent insert to become fully seated without protrudingbelow the bottom surface of the grommet which can be simply supported bya flat surface during the insertion operation.

A relatively thin liner member 4 is shown in FIG. 5 which causes aslight radial deflection of the grommet Wall 17. This minimumdeflection, however, is sufficient to effect a leakproof joint betweenthe adjacent contacting surfaces of the grommet wall 17, liner memberneck 5 and container opening neck 2. It can be seen here that the upperend 6 of the liner neck 5 is forced down over the upper end 3 of thecontainer opening neck 2 by the collar under surface 25. Although thesealing action takes place along the above described adjacent necksurfaces, the radial outward extension of the liner neck 5 aids inpermanently locking the liner neck within the container wall opening.

FIG. 6 illustrates the relationship of the parts when a relatively thickliner member is used. Here it can be seen that the grommet wall 17 isdeflected radially inwardly to a much greater degree causing the groove16 to close up a corresponding amount as indicated by the relativelynarrow gap 16a. Despite this deflection the sealing action between thegrommet wall 17 and the liner member and container wall necks, remainseffective. The relatively rigid grommet inner wall 18, however, is notappreciably effected by the deflection of outer wall 17 so that the ventinsert stem 21 can still be easily pressed intothe grommet bore 12 andlocked therewithin. The thicker liner member, of course, now completelyoccupies the space provided between the flange 13 and the collar undersurface 25'.

The above described vent closure assembly is thus capable ofautomatically compensating for liner thickness variations withoutadversely effecting the scalability of the closure. Moreover the closureassembly disclosed is inexpensive to manufacture and can be easily andquickly hand assembled within a drum head without the use of complicatedtools or dies. The closure construction of the invention also renderstampering readily detectable in that even if the vent insert were priedout of the container it could not be again inserted without pushing thegrommet into the container making such tampering quite obvious.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. In a container closure construction, a metal container wall, aclosure receiving opening in said wall, an upstanding neck formed insaid wall surrounding said opening, a synthetic plastic liner memberdisposed against the interior surface of said container wall, said linermember having a closure receiving opening coaxial with .4 said wallopening, an upstanding neck formed in said liner member surrounding saidopening and disposed within the wall upstanding neck, a grommetcomprising a cylindrical body portion disposed within and coaxial withsaid wall opening, an axial bore extending through said body portion, aradially outwardly extending flange surrounding the base of said bodyportion and underlying said liner member, a closure insert having alower hollow steam portion engaged within said grommet bore, acircumferential locking shoulder formed on said steam portion inengagement with said grommet body portion, a circumferential collarsurrounding the upper end of said stem portion and overlying saidgrommet body portion and a liner member thickness compensating meansintegral with said grommet for effecting a leakproof joint between saidgrommet and said container wall opening neck over a range of linermember thicknesses.

2. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, wherein said linermember compensating means is formed peripherally of said grommet bodyportion.

3. In a container closure construction as in claim 2, wherein said linermember compensating means imparts a flexibility to said grommet bodyportion dependent upon said liner member thickness.

4. In a container closure construction as in claim 3, wherein said linermember compensating means comprises an annular groove formed in theupper face of said grommet body portion forming an inner relativelystable wall portion for engaging said closure stem portion and aflexible outer wall for sealingly engaging said liner member neck.

5. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, wherein saidgrommet body portion bore is formed with an annular undercut section forreceiving said locking shoulder on said closure insert stem portion.

6. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, wherein said linermember neck extends radially outwardly at its upper end so as to overliesaid container wall neck.

7. In a container closure construction as in claim 1, a closure capreceiving means formed on said closure insert.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS- 917,372 4/1909 Stapley 285--203X 2,690,861 10/1954 Tupper 22035 X 2,771,221 11/1956 Hammond et al.22063 X 2,952,379 9/1960 Potter 220 63 X JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, PrimaryExaminer J. R. BARRETT, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R.

